In an appearance on his “Frank TV” livestream this week, the MyPillow CEO asked fans whether they would support him pursuing a bid against the sitting RNC chairwoman, whom he has previously criticized for her lack of effort to overturn the results of a 2020 election Lindell baselessly claims was rigged against former President Donald Trump.
They overwhelmingly did and Lindell—who has faced federal inquiries for his connections to a Colorado-based effort to prove fraud in that state’s election—said he would seriously consider challenging McDaniel.
“One of the things I will tell you, you know, [we] will never ever stop to get rid of these machines and make this the best elections in world history in our country,” Lindell said, referring to Dominion voting machines he has blamed—without evidence—as being at the center of a systemic fraud to rob Trump of the presidency. “We need someone everybody, and I would step into that, if God willing.”
Lindell—who currently faces a sweeping defamation lawsuit from Dominion over those claims—later confirmed his prospective bid to the conservative outlet National File, saying in a statement McDaniel had “failed in her leadership” and that the party needed “a new input to get a different output.”
“We need someone who knows how to run a business to lead one of the most important organizations in our country,” Lindell told the outlet.
Newsweek has contacted Lindell for comment.
Lindell’s intentions are somewhat unclear beyond the scope of the myriad conspiracy theories he’s embraced since the end of the 2020 election. Some of the most vocal supporters of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement fared poorly in the 2022 midterm elections, while more moderate candidates saw success. Lindell, meanwhile, appears fixated on what has already proven to be a losing message.
Last November, he blamed McDaniel and the RNC for orchestrating a last-minute pressure campaign to prevent him from filing an election fraud case with the United States Supreme Court last November—specifically citing McDaniel’s acknowledgment President Joe Biden won the 2020 election as a key indicator of her complicity in the sweeping conspiracy.
“How dare the RNC try and stop this case from getting to the Supreme Court. Shame on you, RNC! You are worse than [Fox News] now!” he said at the time. “You can’t tell me why Ronna McDaniel, the head of the RNC, made a statement saying Biden won three days before this Supreme Court complaint was supposed to go to the Supreme Court.”
“What about the timing of that, America!” he added. “Why would she say that at that moment in time? She didn’t have to say that. What, is she trying to get more donor money? Is she trying to get donor money from Democrats? She is as RINO as they come!”
The brief, later posted by Lindell’s team shortly after the livestream, was rife with errors, including the lack of a plaintiff as well as a lack of jurisdiction for the case, meaning it would likely have been dead-on-arrival—which it was, when the Supreme Court finally weighed the case in October.
